The Griz return home and are this Weber State matchup away from their 2nd bye week of the season. They’re on a bit of a roll winning two games in a row – however while Weber is coming off an incredibly embarrassing shutout loss against SUU they are 2-3 on the season with wins against Sac State and Northern Colorado. Weber has a defense that’s ranked in the top half of the Big Sky as well. They’re a better team than UC Davis who we only beat by 14. This is no pushover game, the Griz will need to come prepared.
Let’s take a look at Weber State;
Weber State Wildcats 2-3
7-26 loss @ Oregon State: It was a tight game for while, I remember a few posters following this game on egriz. The score was 6-0 OSU at the half, and 13-7 headed into the 4th. Webers lone score came on a pick-6. Weber’s offense did virtually nothing in the game, 9 total first downs, 178 yards of TOTAL offense, and less than 25:00 TOP. They held OSU to a lot of fieldgoal attempts, The Beavers went 4-4 kicking fieldgoals. OSU had a good rushing day, 281 yards, didn’t pass much – only 110 passing.
14-41 loss @ NDSU: It was 7-7 at the end of the first quarter… and then the wheels fell off for Weber. Weber wouldn’t score again until they were down 34-7 and that was with 13:00 left in the game. NDSU ran for 305, passed for 281, and held Weber to 206 yards of offense.
32-14 win vs Sac State: Weber kicked 4 fieldgoals and tacked on a few late TDs to stretch the lead. They picked off Sac 3 times. They held Sac under 250 total yards and Weber finally put up some numbers on offense; 176 rushing and 272 passing.
38-17 win @ UNC: Weber ran out to a 31-0 lead and let UNC tack on some late scores. It was another nicely balanced game for Weber, 254 rushing and 181 passing. They held UNC to 326 total yards, about 230 of which was passing yards.
0-44 loss vs Southern Utah: This one had to sting, SUU’s first 14 points were on a punt return and a pick-6. SUU would score later again on another pick 6 as well. Per the box score it looks like Weber played their backup QB a bit, Justin Shaw, he had a Bleskin-like game, 0-4 passing, 3 interceptions, 1 lost fumble, -20 rushing yards. Ouch. Neither team had eye popping stats offensively, SUU ran for 113 and passed for 244. Weber had 260 total yards, about split evenly between rushing and passing.
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General Stats
Looking at yardage per game, here’s who holds the advantage:
Passing yards Montana (323 ypg vs 176 ypg)
Rushing yards Weber (133 ypg vs 121 ypg)
Total Offense Montana (444 ypg vs 309 ypg)
Pass defense Montana (193 ypg allowed vs 201 ypg allowed)
Rush defense Montana (164 ypg allowed vs 181 ypg allowed)
Total defense Montana (357 ypg allowed vs 382 ypg allowed)
Advantage Montana 5 to 1
Other Stats worthy of mention:
Offense Points Scored Montana (25.6 ppg vs 18.2 ppg)
Defense points Allowed Montana (22.6 ppg allowed vs 18.4 ppg allowed)
Turnover margin Montana (-1 for Montana vs -5 for Weber)
Fieldgoal % Montana (82% made (9 of 11) vs 63% made (5 of 8))
Punt returns Montana (7.7 ypr for UM vs 3.8 ypr for Weber)
Kick returns Weber (25.7 ypr vs 20.2 ypr for Montana)
T.O.P. Weber (28:08 for Davis vs 26:11 for Montana)
Red Zone Defense (touchdowns) Weber (31% of the time allowed TDs vs 55% for the Griz)
Red Zone Offense (touchdowns) push (39% for UM 9-23 vs 40% for Weber 4-10)
3rd down offense Montana (UM converts 30% to Weber at 23%)
3rd down defense Montana (allows 31% while Weber allows 42%)
Advantage Montana 7 to 3 with 1 push
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Players to watch:
#1 Cam Livingston – WR: Probably the best threat Weber has. Livingston is a big 6-2, 195 pound wide receiver. He leads Weber with 244 receiving yards, he’s got 1 TD receiving this year. He’s also the highest rated passer in the Big Sky. He’s 1-1 passing with 1 TD, giving him a 648.4 efficiency rating.
#26 Treshawn Garrett – RB: Garrett is a true freshman and one of the two feature running backs in this offense. He’s got 264 yards on the ground, another 4 receiving yards, and 1 rushing TD this year.
#13 Erick Wilkes – RB: Wilkes is the other RB we’ll see lots of, a true sophomore he’s a bigger guy at 200 pounds, he’s got 261 rushing yards (3 less than Garrett), no TDs yet, and 13 receiving yards. Wilkes has 3 more attempts (65) than Garrett, they’ll both be used a lot. Wilkes is a guy that will also be returning their kickoffs – he’s the most dangerous kick returner we’ve faced to date this season. He averages 30 yards per return and has 1 KR for a touchdown this season already.
#10 Jadrian Clark – QB: Clark was benched last week but came back in as his backup was even worse. On the season the big 6-3 QB is averaging about 145 passing yards per game, he’s got 3 TDs to 6 INTs. He’s a bit of a scrambler – has got 44 rushing yards this season.
#33 Tui Satuala – TE: A pass catching TE! Tui is 6-2 and 240 pounds, he’s got 111 yards this season and 1 TD.
#54 Karsen Liljenquist – LB: Karsen leads Weber in tackles with 40 this season, he’s got 4 TFLs this season as well – no forced turnovers yet.
#32 Jaiwan Harrison – S: Harrison played last year a bit as a true freshman, he’s a starter at safety now and has just 18 tackles but already has 3 interceptions this season – tied with TWO PSU players for best in the Big Sky.
#7 Josh Burton – S: Opposite Harrison Burton is 2nd on the team in tackles with 33 tackles, he’s got an interception and 0.5 sacks this season.
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Keys to a Grizzly victory
1. A positive turnover margin. Weber last week had a very rough showing, the Griz need to keep that rolling and force turnovers. Weber’s ball-hawking safety Harrison I’m sure is anxious to snag a few Chalich passes – the Griz will need to play smart in the middle of the field and take a few away from Weber.
2. No big plays. Weber has rattled off a few trick plays to good success this season and the Grizzly defense has continued to show a few issues in the passing game with trick plays, reverse field, and long passes. Keep everything in front of them and don’t let someone get open deep.
3. No big kick returns. Maybe the brightest spot of Weber’s scoring is their kick return unit. This will be a test for the Griz – don’t let Wilkes get loose!
4. Win in the red zone. Notice Weber’s RZ defense? They’re pretty good! They force a lot of field goal attempts instead of letting teams into the endzone. The Grizzly offense has continued to not show the best in the red zone – losing another turnover at the goal line last week to sink their percentage even lower. Statistically this will be a challenge for Montana. If they want to put themselves out in front of Weber by a big margin they’ll need to come away with TDs and not field goals when they visit the red zone.
5. Show us what Calhoun can do. I’m going to assume Logwood is out, not sure with Counts. Favors is listed as the backup but now that Calhoun can’t use his RS this season – show us what he’s made of! 150+ rushing should be the goal – not for Calhoun but combined. Honestly it would be nice to see Nguyen or one of our other RBs be the leading rusher.
6. Look for some big pass plays. Looking at TD summaries against Weber it seems many teams have scored on deep pass plays. Attack their secondary when you can and try to stretch out the field.
7. More consistency. The offense last week couldn’t find a good rhythm. Some drives were great, the following ones weren’t. As conference play heats up this offense needs to
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On paper this one looks like it should be an easy win – it’s hard to pull a lot of Weber’s stats and get excited about this being a tough game. They’ve got 2 wins against 2 teams that also haven’t done much, although Sac lost to EWU by just 8. This could be a sneaky game just like last week – where the Griz couldn’t get in gear and UCD was allowed to hang around. This one could shake out the same way if Montana continually stalls in the RZ as they’ve done this season so far.
It’s a home game, that’s a plus, the Griz are on a bit of a roll and seem to be taking baby steps on offense to getting better. Earlier this week I was thinking a 28-10 kind of score, but I’m going to get crazy – and say the offense tips the 30 point mark. Griz win 34-10.
GO GRIZ
Let’s take a look at Weber State;
Weber State Wildcats 2-3
7-26 loss @ Oregon State: It was a tight game for while, I remember a few posters following this game on egriz. The score was 6-0 OSU at the half, and 13-7 headed into the 4th. Webers lone score came on a pick-6. Weber’s offense did virtually nothing in the game, 9 total first downs, 178 yards of TOTAL offense, and less than 25:00 TOP. They held OSU to a lot of fieldgoal attempts, The Beavers went 4-4 kicking fieldgoals. OSU had a good rushing day, 281 yards, didn’t pass much – only 110 passing.
14-41 loss @ NDSU: It was 7-7 at the end of the first quarter… and then the wheels fell off for Weber. Weber wouldn’t score again until they were down 34-7 and that was with 13:00 left in the game. NDSU ran for 305, passed for 281, and held Weber to 206 yards of offense.
32-14 win vs Sac State: Weber kicked 4 fieldgoals and tacked on a few late TDs to stretch the lead. They picked off Sac 3 times. They held Sac under 250 total yards and Weber finally put up some numbers on offense; 176 rushing and 272 passing.
38-17 win @ UNC: Weber ran out to a 31-0 lead and let UNC tack on some late scores. It was another nicely balanced game for Weber, 254 rushing and 181 passing. They held UNC to 326 total yards, about 230 of which was passing yards.
0-44 loss vs Southern Utah: This one had to sting, SUU’s first 14 points were on a punt return and a pick-6. SUU would score later again on another pick 6 as well. Per the box score it looks like Weber played their backup QB a bit, Justin Shaw, he had a Bleskin-like game, 0-4 passing, 3 interceptions, 1 lost fumble, -20 rushing yards. Ouch. Neither team had eye popping stats offensively, SUU ran for 113 and passed for 244. Weber had 260 total yards, about split evenly between rushing and passing.
--------------------
General Stats
Looking at yardage per game, here’s who holds the advantage:
Passing yards Montana (323 ypg vs 176 ypg)
Rushing yards Weber (133 ypg vs 121 ypg)
Total Offense Montana (444 ypg vs 309 ypg)
Pass defense Montana (193 ypg allowed vs 201 ypg allowed)
Rush defense Montana (164 ypg allowed vs 181 ypg allowed)
Total defense Montana (357 ypg allowed vs 382 ypg allowed)
Advantage Montana 5 to 1
Other Stats worthy of mention:
Offense Points Scored Montana (25.6 ppg vs 18.2 ppg)
Defense points Allowed Montana (22.6 ppg allowed vs 18.4 ppg allowed)
Turnover margin Montana (-1 for Montana vs -5 for Weber)
Fieldgoal % Montana (82% made (9 of 11) vs 63% made (5 of 8))
Punt returns Montana (7.7 ypr for UM vs 3.8 ypr for Weber)
Kick returns Weber (25.7 ypr vs 20.2 ypr for Montana)
T.O.P. Weber (28:08 for Davis vs 26:11 for Montana)
Red Zone Defense (touchdowns) Weber (31% of the time allowed TDs vs 55% for the Griz)
Red Zone Offense (touchdowns) push (39% for UM 9-23 vs 40% for Weber 4-10)
3rd down offense Montana (UM converts 30% to Weber at 23%)
3rd down defense Montana (allows 31% while Weber allows 42%)
Advantage Montana 7 to 3 with 1 push
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Players to watch:
#1 Cam Livingston – WR: Probably the best threat Weber has. Livingston is a big 6-2, 195 pound wide receiver. He leads Weber with 244 receiving yards, he’s got 1 TD receiving this year. He’s also the highest rated passer in the Big Sky. He’s 1-1 passing with 1 TD, giving him a 648.4 efficiency rating.
#26 Treshawn Garrett – RB: Garrett is a true freshman and one of the two feature running backs in this offense. He’s got 264 yards on the ground, another 4 receiving yards, and 1 rushing TD this year.
#13 Erick Wilkes – RB: Wilkes is the other RB we’ll see lots of, a true sophomore he’s a bigger guy at 200 pounds, he’s got 261 rushing yards (3 less than Garrett), no TDs yet, and 13 receiving yards. Wilkes has 3 more attempts (65) than Garrett, they’ll both be used a lot. Wilkes is a guy that will also be returning their kickoffs – he’s the most dangerous kick returner we’ve faced to date this season. He averages 30 yards per return and has 1 KR for a touchdown this season already.
#10 Jadrian Clark – QB: Clark was benched last week but came back in as his backup was even worse. On the season the big 6-3 QB is averaging about 145 passing yards per game, he’s got 3 TDs to 6 INTs. He’s a bit of a scrambler – has got 44 rushing yards this season.
#33 Tui Satuala – TE: A pass catching TE! Tui is 6-2 and 240 pounds, he’s got 111 yards this season and 1 TD.
#54 Karsen Liljenquist – LB: Karsen leads Weber in tackles with 40 this season, he’s got 4 TFLs this season as well – no forced turnovers yet.
#32 Jaiwan Harrison – S: Harrison played last year a bit as a true freshman, he’s a starter at safety now and has just 18 tackles but already has 3 interceptions this season – tied with TWO PSU players for best in the Big Sky.
#7 Josh Burton – S: Opposite Harrison Burton is 2nd on the team in tackles with 33 tackles, he’s got an interception and 0.5 sacks this season.
---------------
Keys to a Grizzly victory
1. A positive turnover margin. Weber last week had a very rough showing, the Griz need to keep that rolling and force turnovers. Weber’s ball-hawking safety Harrison I’m sure is anxious to snag a few Chalich passes – the Griz will need to play smart in the middle of the field and take a few away from Weber.
2. No big plays. Weber has rattled off a few trick plays to good success this season and the Grizzly defense has continued to show a few issues in the passing game with trick plays, reverse field, and long passes. Keep everything in front of them and don’t let someone get open deep.
3. No big kick returns. Maybe the brightest spot of Weber’s scoring is their kick return unit. This will be a test for the Griz – don’t let Wilkes get loose!
4. Win in the red zone. Notice Weber’s RZ defense? They’re pretty good! They force a lot of field goal attempts instead of letting teams into the endzone. The Grizzly offense has continued to not show the best in the red zone – losing another turnover at the goal line last week to sink their percentage even lower. Statistically this will be a challenge for Montana. If they want to put themselves out in front of Weber by a big margin they’ll need to come away with TDs and not field goals when they visit the red zone.
5. Show us what Calhoun can do. I’m going to assume Logwood is out, not sure with Counts. Favors is listed as the backup but now that Calhoun can’t use his RS this season – show us what he’s made of! 150+ rushing should be the goal – not for Calhoun but combined. Honestly it would be nice to see Nguyen or one of our other RBs be the leading rusher.
6. Look for some big pass plays. Looking at TD summaries against Weber it seems many teams have scored on deep pass plays. Attack their secondary when you can and try to stretch out the field.
7. More consistency. The offense last week couldn’t find a good rhythm. Some drives were great, the following ones weren’t. As conference play heats up this offense needs to
------------------
On paper this one looks like it should be an easy win – it’s hard to pull a lot of Weber’s stats and get excited about this being a tough game. They’ve got 2 wins against 2 teams that also haven’t done much, although Sac lost to EWU by just 8. This could be a sneaky game just like last week – where the Griz couldn’t get in gear and UCD was allowed to hang around. This one could shake out the same way if Montana continually stalls in the RZ as they’ve done this season so far.
It’s a home game, that’s a plus, the Griz are on a bit of a roll and seem to be taking baby steps on offense to getting better. Earlier this week I was thinking a 28-10 kind of score, but I’m going to get crazy – and say the offense tips the 30 point mark. Griz win 34-10.
GO GRIZ
